Archive for August, 2013

“The detail is incredible, there is almost no wear at all.” Said Dancer as she studied the belly of the first Giant. There were three statues in the cavern all depicting the same strange creature, but none of them were identical and each had its own idiosyncrasies in construction. They all faced in one direction, but were not arranged in any discernible pattern. In fact their positions looked casual, almost transient in their placement as if they were in the process of being moved.

Dancer was on her back underneath the largest of the three sculptures, the first one that Portillo had seen. While from a distance the body of the creature had appeared to be as smooth as polished marble, up close she could see thousands of tiny etched lines. Hundreds and hundreds of tiny shield-shaped scales covering the whole of the body. She stroked her gloved hand along the stone stomach. The scales were so small and delicate that she could not feel them through her gloves. She longed to take them off and touch her skin to the stone. She wanted to feel its texture, its temperature, everything about it. “What do you think it is? A sea monster, some sort of lizard, or one of them? Could this really be what Martians looked like?”

Priam had been nervously awaiting his sister’s return; worry clearly etched on his young face as the two females approached the house. He quickly ran to Helen and she fell into his arms. Her shoulders bobbed as her tears absorbed into her younger brother’s night shirt. Priam looked to Beth for answers.

“She is not hurt,” Beth answered the wordless question. “She was lucky that Berg found her though, or things could have been very different.” The words caused Helen’s imagination to run wild, and her crying escalated into an uncontrolled frenzy. Beth looked at the boy holding his terrified sister, and she felt sympathy for the Troy family. “I think, perhaps, you should keep this incident to yourselves. The girl has already had to deal with so much, I think telling your parents would be…”

“The proper path for us,” Priam finished Beth’s sentence. “Thank you for everything you have done this night, my lady. Keeping secrets from our family is what caused this horror in the first place, and we will not make that same mistake again.”

Beth was surprised at the intensity and confidence of Priam. He was completely in control, and was dismissing her. She smiled, realizing that Helen was in good hands.

From the window above, Castor and Pollux looked down on the trio. The boys were not old enough to understand why they couldn’t look away from the cleavage pressing up from Beth’s dress, but they were old enough to know they didn’t want avert their gaze. When the voluptuous woman finally walked away, the twins nervously grinned at each other and lay back down in bed. They made sure they were back to back. The two boys hoped to quickly fall asleep; they longed for dreams of the woman and her breasts.

*****

Berg forced the man into the Crab Trap, and searched for Larkin. Ricci noticed the half-demon and immediately made his way over to him. “If you are looking for Larkin,” Ricci stated, “he has already returned home. Let me help you.”

“I would rather lie naked and dying in a desert,” Berg stated. He gave Ricci a smile and yanked the condemned man back outside. Berg either did not hear or simply did not care about the protests of Ricci. The fat man cursed the half-demon, and called down every degradation he could fathom. Berg and his prisoner made their way to the jailhouse with the man struggling the entire way.

“I didn’t know she was just a kid, Berg,” he argued over and over again. “Honestly, it won’t happen again. I swear on my life.” As they got closer and closer to the prison, the man pulled harder and harder against Berg.

“I will cut your damn head off if you don’t stop pulling against me,” Berg turned angrily on the man. “You tried to rape a little girl. It is taking everything I have not to cut you into pieces and throw you in the sea. But I promise, if you yank me one more time or say another fucking word…” Berg let the threat hang in the air between them for a moment before continuing to the jailhouse.

Perhaps it was the look in the half-demon’s eyes or maybe it was the fact that the air had turned much colder as Berg spoke, but the man did not speak or pull anymore.

*****

“Baby, I know that things haven’t been the same between you and Ricci lately,” Dani spoke as she slipped out of her dress, “but I want you to be careful.”

Larkin pulled his shirt over his head, revealing a muscled chest and abdomen covered in scars. The man had seen and survived many battles. “I am not scared of Ricci.”

“Yes, I know,” Dani continued, “but he does run the city.”

“I know that,” Larkin countered. “You think I don’t know that he runs the city?” The muscles in his chest and arms tensed as he continued. “I have to choose the men I take on these missions very carefully, because I KNOW that he will try to find out exactly what strategies we are using. He is in with the knights, I swear it, Dani.”

“Well, no one believes that to be the case.”

“No one?!” Larkin asked.

“Don’t try to spin my words, Larkin Dane.” Dani shot back. “I have never doubted you or questioned your methods. Never once have I complained as you trampled off to fight demon knights alongside a demon spawn. So you will not try to take my words and twist them into some version where I lack faith in you.” Larkin just stared at his lovely wife. He had pushed her to this point with his words, and now he had to endure the tirade. “But… just because I believe you does not mean that others share my faith. Ricci is powerful, and people are more afraid of his power than they are of you and your men. So, be careful. If you cannot do that, then I would rather us just leave this place.”

Larkin grabbed her delicate face in his large hands and promised her that he would be careful.